Organisers

• Ralf Everaers (Laboratoire de Physique, ENS Lyon)
• Carsten Svaneborg (Department of Chemistry, University of Aarhus)
• Kurt Kremer (MPI fuer Polymerforschung)

Supports

 CECAM

 Marie Curie - MolSimu

Description

Soft condensed matter comprises a wide class of materials
such as polymers, surfactants, colloids, liquids crystals.
Its microstructure is determined by a delicate interplay of thermal
fluctuations and molecular interactions. The resulting material
properties show a complex dependence on molecular architecture,
temperature, concentration, composition, pH, ionic strength, and
external fields etc. Soft-condensed matter has many applications
in liquid crystal displays, paints, detergents, inks, lubricants,
adhesives, cosmetics, rubber etc. Furthermore, evolution has selected
soft-condensed matter as the building material of living systems.

Computer simulations often provide the most direct access to the
intriguing physical phenomena occuring at the nano scale which are characteristic of soft matter. The course offers an introduction to Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics Simulations of polymeric systems. Subjects include: Static properties of single chains (random coil, excluded volume, collapse in poor solvent), lattice model Monte Carlo; Chain dynamics (Rouse / reptation model), Molecular Dynamics simulations of bead-spring models; Atomistic vs. coarse-grained approaches.